That handsome guy from the 70s.
Quiz Show (1994) -- A very entertaining little movie starring everyone: great-as-always John Turturro, Rob Morrow when he was famous, Ralph Fiennes looking more handsome than ever, Paul Scofield who stole every scene he was in with his perfect deliveries, reliable David Paymer, the one and only Hank Azaria, and even Mina Sorvino and Martin Scorsese. The movie sometimes forgets it has to remind us why a TV quiz scandal is important. We've only watched JFK two years ago, and that's where the real shit was going down. But the scandal was important, or if not the scandal itself then the ideas that arose from it, and occasionally the movie does seem aware of these things, both moral and social. The problem with the movie that the last line or so, "It's just show biz," might be taken literally instead of the intended irony. I'm not much of a fan of Robert Redford's direction here. He's directs like an actor with something to prove, trying to dazzle us with all sorts of bland tricks when he should be more concerned about the story, but fortunately the story and the actors are so interesting that it's only mildly annoying (he even does that Hitchcock push-zoom thing, jeez). Fun stuff. B
Copyright (c) Feb 2006 by Rusty Likes Movies